Fungi: Making and Learning
Christopher Lee Kennedy
1 week course || DRAWING 623 001 || 1 credit hour

This class explores the use of mycology, performance art, and movement research to develop artworks in collaboration with a landscape. Through a series of immersive encounters with Ox-Bow’s 115 + acre campus, students will experiment with practices such as embodied science, chance operation, and the development of movement scores to create ecologically-inspired artworks. Students will experiment with a range of media including field recording, drawing and experimental choreography. Class materials and exercises will draw inspiration from the life and work of John Cage who was not only an experimental Fluxus artist, but also an avid mushroom hunter and co-founder of the New York Mycological Society. While an introduction to mushroom identification and foraging will be discussed, the class will also focus on how mushrooms can serve as a metaphor and material for multispecies collaboration and reflective art practices. Studio work and research will ultimately result in new movement-based works, drawings and field research.

FACULTY

Christopher Lee Kennedy is an educator and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. With a background in environmental engineering, Kennedy playfully re-imagines field science techniques and develops new forms of storytelling to create installations, sculptures, and publications that examine conventional notions of ‘Nature’ and the possibility of interspecies collaboration. Kennedy has shown work at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, the Ackland Art Museum and the Queens Museum. He is currently a part time Faculty in the Department of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design.

Wet-plate and Platinotypes
Robert Clarke-Davis and Jaclyn Silverman
PHOTO 610 002 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee $150

Using the historic, time-honored wet-plate collodion and platinotype processes students will move between the studio, community, and natural environment at Ox-Bow to create images and photographic objects. These courses can be taken sequentially for two weeks or individually for one week. The first week will focus on wet-plate collodion; students will explore the fundamentals of large format photography using analog view cameras to create glass-plate negatives in the field. Mobile, onsite darkrooms will allow instant gauging in progress and results. Glass plates can stand alone as photographic objects, or be reproduced in photographic printing. During week two students will work with platinotype printing, one of the most stable photographic processes. Students will use the traditional iron-based developing-out process of platinum palladium. Using digital cameras and laptops to capture images, they will digitally print negatives to be used in this unique tactile process. Those who participate in wet-plate collodion will be able to print directly from their glass plate negatives.

FACULTY

Robert Clarke-Davis has served as an Associate Professor in Photography at SAIC since 1990. He earned his BA from Beloit College and an MA at the University of London, Goldsmiths’ College, School of Art and Design. His work has exhibited at Cleveland Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Wuk Kunsthalle, Vienna; and Magyar Fotogr’fiai M’zeum Kesckem’t, Hungary. His work is held in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Fine Arts Library, Indiana University, IN; Impressions Gallery, North Yorkshire; The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is represented by James Baird Gallery.

Jaclyn Silverman is from Youngstown, Ohio, living in Chicago, Illinois. She received her BFA in Photography from The Ohio State University, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work revolves around community, place, and intergenerational histories. She has exhibited in Boulder, CO, Chicago, IL, Youngstown, and Columbus, Ohio. She has been the recipient of the Denman Research Grant from The Ohio State University and Women Artists Against Racism from the YWCA for her ongoing series, The Working Family. Her works are part of permanent collections with The Ohio State University, The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, and The Art Institute of Chicago. She and Robert Clarke-Davis curated the exhibition Within the Portfolios: 1968-2016 A History of Photography from the School of the Art Institute with the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. Silverman has been a visiting lecturer with The Ohio State University and Part-time Professor at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. Currently, she is Professor of Art and Humanities with Truman College, Artistic Director of Chicago art organization, CPS Lives, and returning faculty member with Ox-Bow School of Art.

Wet-plate and Platinotypes
Robert Clarke-Davis and Jaclyn Silverman
PHOTO 609 001 || 3 credit hours || Lab Fee $300

Using the historic, time-honored wet-plate collodion and platinotype processes students will move between the studio, community, and natural environment at Ox-Bow to create images and photographic objects. These courses can be taken sequentially for two weeks or individually for one week. The first week will focus on wet-plate collodion; students will explore the fundamentals of large format photography using analog view cameras to create glass-plate negatives in the field. Mobile, onsite darkrooms will allow instant gauging in progress and results. Glass plates can stand alone as photographic objects, or be reproduced in photographic printing. During week two students will work with platinotype printing, one of the most stable photographic processes. Students will use the traditional iron-based developing-out process of platinum palladium. Using digital cameras and laptops to capture images, they will digitally print negatives to be used in this unique tactile process. Those who participate in wet-plate collodion will be able to print directly from their glass plate negatives.

FACULTY

Robert Clarke-Davis has served as an Associate Professor in Photography at SAIC since 1990. He earned his BA from Beloit College and an MA at the University of London, Goldsmiths’ College, School of Art and Design. His work has exhibited at Cleveland Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Wuk Kunsthalle, Vienna; and Magyar Fotogr’fiai M’zeum Kesckem’t, Hungary. His work is held in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Fine Arts Library, Indiana University, IN; Impressions Gallery, North Yorkshire; The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is represented by James Baird Gallery.

Jaclyn Silverman is from Youngstown, Ohio, living in Chicago, Illinois. She received her BFA in Photography from The Ohio State University, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work revolves around community, place, and intergenerational histories. She has exhibited in Boulder, CO, Chicago, IL, Youngstown, and Columbus, Ohio. She has been the recipient of the Denman Research Grant from The Ohio State University and Women Artists Against Racism from the YWCA for her ongoing series, The Working Family. Her works are part of permanent collections with The Ohio State University, The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, and The Art Institute of Chicago. She and Robert Clarke-Davis curated the exhibition Within the Portfolios: 1968-2016 A History of Photography from the School of the Art Institute with the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. Silverman has been a visiting lecturer with The Ohio State University and Part-time Professor at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. Currently, she is Professor of Art and Humanities with Truman College, Artistic Director of Chicago art organization, CPS Lives, and returning faculty member with Ox-Bow School of Art.

Wet-plate and Platinotypes
Robert Clarke-Davis and Jaclyn Silverman
PHOTO 610 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee $150

Using the historic, time-honored wet-plate collodion and platinotype processes students will move between the studio, community, and natural environment at Ox-Bow to create images and photographic objects. These courses can be taken sequentially for two weeks or individually for one week. The first week will focus on wet-plate collodion; students will explore the fundamentals of large format photography using analog view cameras to create glass-plate negatives in the field. Mobile, onsite darkrooms will allow instant gauging in progress and results. Glass plates can stand alone as photographic objects, or be reproduced in photographic printing. During week two students will work with platinotype printing, one of the most stable photographic processes. Students will use the traditional iron-based developing-out process of platinum palladium. Using digital cameras and laptops to capture images, they will digitally print negatives to be used in this unique tactile process. Those who participate in wet-plate collodion will be able to print directly from their glass plate negatives.

FACULTY

Robert Clarke-Davis has served as an Associate Professor in Photography at SAIC since 1990. He earned his BA from Beloit College and an MA at the University of London, Goldsmiths’ College, School of Art and Design. His work has exhibited at Cleveland Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Wuk Kunsthalle, Vienna; and Magyar Fotogr’fiai M’zeum Kesckem’t, Hungary. His work is held in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art; Fine Arts Library, Indiana University, IN; Impressions Gallery, North Yorkshire; The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is represented by James Baird Gallery.

Jaclyn Silverman is from Youngstown, Ohio, living in Chicago, Illinois. She received her BFA in Photography from The Ohio State University, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work revolves around community, place, and intergenerational histories. She has exhibited in Boulder, CO, Chicago, IL, Youngstown, and Columbus, Ohio. She has been the recipient of the Denman Research Grant from The Ohio State University and Women Artists Against Racism from the YWCA for her ongoing series, The Working Family. Her works are part of permanent collections with The Ohio State University, The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, and The Art Institute of Chicago. She and Robert Clarke-Davis curated the exhibition Within the Portfolios: 1968-2016 A History of Photography from the School of the Art Institute with the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection. Silverman has been a visiting lecturer with The Ohio State University and Part-time Professor at Dominican University in River Forest, IL. Currently, she is Professor of Art and Humanities with Truman College, Artistic Director of Chicago art organization, CPS Lives, and returning faculty member with Ox-Bow School of Art.

Abrupt Climate Change
Mika Tosca
2 week course || SCIENCE 605 001 || 3 credit hours

Since 1970, global temperatures have risen more than a degree Fahrenheit, yet, despite dire warnings from climate scientists, humanity continues to emit climate-warming greenhouse gases at record pace. In the past two decades we have seen the increasing effects of devastating sea level rise, stronger and more powerful storms, longer droughts, deadly heat waves, destructive wildfires, accelerating loss of the world’s rainforests, growing species extinction rates, and changing water availability. In this course, we will explore the scientific explanation of contemporary climate change as well as the economic origins of our fossil fuel addiction. We will discuss future projections of climate change, the underpinnings of modern “climate change denial”, and whether we can avoid what scientists call “catastrophic climate change” in this century. We will consider current news articles and relevant policy solutions/responses, and class work will involve group work, critical thinking, quantitative practice, relevant scientific readings, qualitative homework, quizzes, an exam and a final project.

FACULTY

Mika Tosca is a trained climate scientist, having completed her Ph.D. work at the University of California, Irvine in 2012. While at Irvine, Dr.Tosca researched the interconnectivity of the climate with landscape fires and particulate (aerosol) emissions. She continued her work as a postdoctoral scholar at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a contracted lab of NASA) in Pasadena, CA, working under Dr. David Diner. There she continued researching the interactions between climate and landscape fires, even traveling as far as Namibia in 2016 to research the complex relationships between smoke from fires and cloud formation. At SAIC, she has begun to explore whether scientists can work with designers to determine whether reimagining data visualization can help scientists ask better questions. She continues to explore contemporary science questions concerning climate change and has given several invited presentations to various organizations.

Thought Collections: Exploring Book Structures
Regin Igloria
1 week course || PRINT 648 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

This course introduces bookbinding skills to students who will create a series of different hand-bound books, from pamphlets and stab bindings to more complex codex-style structures like the Coptic and long stitch. Each morning the instructor will introduce new binding techniques, and will follow up with an afternoon of content-building exercises using the environment, landscape, and a variety of drawing and collage materials. Students will explore ways of gathering and manipulating information in a portable format, resulting in a small volume of hand-held works.

FACULTY

Dimensional Collage
Annalee Koehn
1 week course || PAINTING 653 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

This week-long class combines traditional collage concepts and paper construction styles to explore a structural approach to image and form using found imagery and materials. Deliberate or makeshift, there is a body of artist collage referencing the world of 3D objects such as paper toys, games, and packaging. Informed by the tradition of artists’ collage and assemblage work, including Eileen Agar, Romare Bearden, Joseph Cornell, Hannah Hoch, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Betye Saar and Kurt Schwitters, this class will explore and expand the possibilities of 3D structural imagery, function, utility, and content building. Students will employ traditional materials and tools such as bristol board, exacto knife, scissors, tape and glue, and a stockpile of colored papers, found images, other printed materials. Students will come away with a collection of meaningful objects that incorporate their personal vision and an expanded visual vocabulary.

FACULTY

Annalee Koehn is a Chicago-based artist and musician, and teaches at SAIC in the Designed Objects department. Her work is primarily structural, but spans disciplines and materials, sometimes defying categorization. Threads that run throughout are an exploration of physical and metaphorical properties of materials, cause-and-effect, and the interplay of form and function. Koehn’s work has been shown at Galerie POWERHOUSE, Montreal, the Chicago Cultural Center, Frederick Layton Gallery at MIAD, Vanderbilt University, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Illinois State Museum, Randolph Street Gallery and others, and she has multiple grants, awards and 8 US Patents. She earned her MFA from Louisiana State University and BFA from University of Illinois. Other teaching includes Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, West Virginia University, Oakton College, and traditional music and harmony singing at The Augusta Heritage Center.

Metamorphosing Paper
Andrea Peterson
1 week course || PAPER 605 001 || 1 credit hour || Lab Fee: $50

Metamorphosis is an entity’s transformation from its original structure into another form. In this one week course, we will develop an understanding of paper fiber, in tandem with surface modifications, to create works of art. We will be using pulps that can be highly pigmented or translucent to create effects only possible with paper fiber. Watermarking and other techniques will be explored to create the illusion of entirely new surfaces. The transformed papers will be soft, rigid, textured, stained, dyed, marbled, waxed, etc. Handmade papers are strong, durable and lightweight and can handle several alterations—allowing them to reference something entirely new.

FACULTY

Andrea Peterson is an artist and educator. She lives and creates work in northwest Indiana at Hook Pottery Paper, a studio and gallery co-owned with her husband. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea exhibits internationally, most recently at a paper arts exhibit Nature I Impression at the Municipal Gallery in Beer Sheva, Israel. She combines paper arts, printmaking and book arts to make works that address human relationship to the environment. She is a recipient of a 2016/17 Indiana Arts Council Grant.

Ghost in the Machine
Sarah Belknap and Joseph Belknap
2 week course || PHOTO 611 001 || 3 credit hours || Lab Fee: $50

“I cannot find my center of gravity—” Mary Anne Atwood - This class utilizes and facilitates ways of perceiving beyond the human machine. Using various light sensitive medias, the darkroom, film and digital cameras, solar and nighttime telescopes, binoculars, sound recorders, and night vision cameras, we explore time and the properties of waves. We will produce images, videos, sound installations, and performances. Beyond studio work we will look into art, cinema, and literature as works exploring themes in science, time, and perception. Practices by numerous artist will be explored including but not limited to James Turrell, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Werner Herzog, Simon Starling, Carsten Nicolai, Sarah Charlesworth and Alan Lightman.

FACULTY

Sarah Belknap and Joseph Belknap are Chicago-based interdisciplinary artists and educators who received their MFAs from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Working as a team since 2008, their art has been exhibited in artist-run exhibition spaces in Springfield, Brooklyn, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis. In addition, they have presented performances at institutions throughout Chicago, including the Chicago Cultural Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Links Hall, and the MCA. Their work has been shown in group exhibitions at San Francisco Art Institute Galleries (San Francisco, California) the Columbus Museum of Art, the Chicago Artists’ Coalition, Western Exhibitions, and solo shows at The Arts Club of Chicago and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Their work was recently included in the book, Weather as Medium by Janine Randerson, in the Leonardo Series through MIT Press.

Papermaking
Andrea Peterson
2 week course || PAPER 604 001 || 3 credit hours || Lab Fee: $100

Paper is an exciting and elusive art medium. Paper pulp can be transformed into sculptural works, drawings with pulp and unusual surface textures. It can allude to skin, metal, rock, or represent something entirely unique. In class, we will explore these possibilities as we examine other artists using pulp as a contemporary medium. Traditional and non-traditional processes, tailored to the capabilities of each fiber, will be explored. Stretch your artistic and technical skills to create unusual works of art.

FACULTY

Andrea Peterson is an artist and educator. She lives and creates work in northwest Indiana at Hook Pottery Paper, a studio and gallery co-owned with her husband. She teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea exhibits internationally, most recently at a paper arts exhibit Nature I Impression at the Municipal Gallery in Beer Sheva, Israel. She combines paper arts, printmaking and book arts to make works that address human relationship to the environment. She is a recipient of a 2016/17 Indiana Arts Council Grant.

in | un | data: humanizing data viz
Jina Valentine
2 week course || PRINT 656 001 || 3 credit hours

Siri and Alexa know you better than your mom. Amazon reminds you to buy her a birthday present from her wish list. Google maps thinks you should try that new Thai restaurant because it’s Thursday and you always order Thai on Thursday. Your Target coupons predicted x y z. In this dystopian era, all of human experience is quantifiable, trackable, and subjected to data-driven marketing techniques.  In news media, data visualization attempts to qualify quantitative data to craft compelling stories, affect legislation, or generate support for a cause. However detailed the visualizations may be, they often fail to convey the lived experience of the events or phenomena that they illustrate. Data humanism is the study of the disconnect that exists between quantitative data and lived experience. Artists examining and representing this data can offer new ways of imagining those connections between life in numbers and map points and sensual experience. In this course, students will examine various data sets related to their individual interests. We will investigate ways to see how our lives and searches are tracked online through search history analytics, google maps analytics, and various other metrics; we will look at census data and cultural data related to sociopolitical issues; we will see how data is organized and made available to the public through various online archives including Wikipedia and the Library of Congress. The course is not media specific, but will focus on drawing, painting, collage techniques, and interventions in public space (a lá the Situationist International). Virtual guest presentations will include researchers in media theory, programmers from the Wikimedia Foundation, data visualization specialists, and artists who transform data visualizatio

FACULTY

Jina Valentine’s interdisciplinary practice is informed by the intuitive strategies of American folk artists and traditional craft techniques, and interweaves histories latent within found texts, objects, narratives, and spaces. She has exhibited widely, both in her independent work and with her collaborative project, Black Lunch Table. Valentine has participated in numerous residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, and the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.  She has received grants from the North Carolina Arts Council, Creative Capital, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and Art Matters.  Jina received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, her MFA from Stanford University, and is an Assistant Professor of Printmedia at the SAIC.